Abstract/Index

The essay investigates how the controversial dispute connected to the subscription of Fiat collective bargaining for the relaunch of productivity in Pomigliano plant impacted the Italian system of industrial relations.
The research moves from the observation that the subscription of this agreement by only some trade unions led to the breech of the pact for unity of action by union confederations which had ensured the soundness of the overall trade union system for sixty years.
In this perspective and after retracing the various phases of negotiation - from the different strikes up to the referendum and subscription of the separate agreement of January 22, 2009 which reformed the bargaining system, the author highlights the fact that two separate contract systems were created as a result of this separate agreement, each endowed with different sets of rules, more and more distant but the facto in competition with each other.
These are the basic assumptions that the author moved from to investigate the consequences of such a competition through the analysis of the abundant jurisprudence produced since the agreement was signed, with the aim of proving the case for a renewed unity of the trade unions through a new inter-trade union agreement concerning union representation, as was the one subscribed later on June 28, 2011.
A research which stems from theory to praxis in order to show the fragility of an industrial relations system based on unanimity and highlight the need for a reform combining the reasons of union democracy with those of labour productivity, while facing global competition.